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The Lost Words: Rediscover our natural world with this spellbinding book

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Lizzie's story ties in well with the part of the story about suffragists attempting to change things for women. But Lizzie wants no part of that, she is practical and knows that she can only be thankful not to be living on the streets. Esme, even though she is working class, has her loving dad, a home, eventually a job working in the Scriptorium, yet she never seems happy. If only the fictional character of Esme could have learned how to better cope with her blessings, I might have enjoyed her part in the story more. I appreciated getting to learn about this time in our history and the real people who worked to give us the Oxford English Dictionary. I give this story 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars. This was a great buddy read with DeAnn and Mary Beth. Esme who spends her days under the sorting table – spots and decides to keep a stray slip with that word on it and stores it, largely forgotten, in a small suitcase owned by a housemaid Lizzie. I thought about all the words I’d collected from Mabel and from Lizzie and from other women: women who gutted fish or cut cloth or cleaned the ladies’ public convenience on Magdalen Street. They spoke their minds in words that suited them, and were reverent as I wrote their words on slips. These slips were precious to me, and I hid them in the trunk to keep them safe. But from what? Did I fear they would be scrutinised and found deficient? Or were those fears I had for myself? I never dreamed the givers had any hopes for their words beyond my slips, but it was suddenly clear that no one but me would ever read them. The women’s names, so carefully written, would never be set in type. Their words and their names would be lost as soon as I began to forget them. My Dictionary of Lost Words was no better than the grille in the Ladies’ Gallery of the House of Commons: it hid what should be seen and silenced what should be heard. Latch-keyed, adj: An unchaperoned or undisciplined young woman. (Women should be latch-keyed and allowed to go out as they please.)

I highly recommend it to historical fiction and based on real characters fiction fans. It’s quite informative, intense, realistic novel to read and absorb slowly. Overall, I thought that this book provided some interesting, good food for thought, but it should be been half of its size. Online culture has boomed, screen time has soared and the ‘roaming range’ within which children can play and stray unsupervised has shrunk by more than 90% in 40 years amid parental fears about traffic, ‘stranger danger’ and the pressure of school work.” The book also covers the lot of the poor, women and suffragettes, as well as what it may have been like to grow up motherless in Victorian England; it's nowhere near as stuffy as it might sound to some and proved to be a really immersive experience. One of those books, that might not be the greatest but I whole heartedly feel every booknerd MUST read! 8 out of 12. Words are the same – there can be no two that mean exactly the same – and a large part of the point of an historical dictionary like the OED is to provide quotes of ‘first uses’ for the shades of meaning that words have.Phosphorescence' wins 2021 ABIA Book of the Year". Books+Publishing. 28 April 2021 . Retrieved 29 April 2021. It means we have collected a lot of words and quotations for Dr. Murray’s dictionary, and I’m sure he meant it as a compliment.” The book began as a response to the removal of everyday nature words - among them "acorn", "bluebell", "kingfisher" and "wren" - from a widely used children’s dictionary, because those words were not being used enough by children to merit inclusion. But The Lost Words then grew to become a much broader protest at the loss of the natural world around us, as well as a celebration of the creatures and plants with which we share our lives, in all their wonderful, characterful glory."

the hard copy includes a b/w photo of the Scriptorium staff and timelines of the making of the OED as well as major historical events featured; Macfarlane is a changemaker... he has made nature-writing populis6t and big-selling. Morris's paintings are beautiful - at once familiar and other. A contender for book of the year The Big Issue A vulgar word, well placed and said with just enough vigour, can express far more than its polite equivalent.The book is a fictional story revolving around the creation of the first Oxford dictionary. Esme is a young girl who likes to spend her childhood sitting beneath the sorting table in a garden shed they name the ’Scriptorium’. This is where her lexicographer father and other workers debate which words are to be included in the dictionary. Here Esme sits unseen and unheard, she is motherless and is raised by her father. I still remember when I saw my first kingfisher, that heart stopping, breath taking moment of magic. Listening to Robert MacFarlane read his spell of a kingfisher in the offices of Hamish Hamilton gave me that same sense of wonder. What an utter delight it has been to work with his words.

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